The invention relates to underground mining in general and more particularly to an arrangement for controlling advancing timbering.
For adapting to the progress of a mine being worked by means of a mining machine, the timbering units, for instance, the timber frames, are equipped with hydraulic cylinders which must fulfill the following functions: Drawing the timbering, pushing the timbering forward, setting the timbering, advancing the conveyer and, optionally, extending the support cars. These functions can be triggered via, for instance, electromagnetically operated valves from a longwalling control room or also at the site. A longwall timbering system comprises a number of timbering units which can be controlled individually or by groups to obtain the advancing process.
An arrangement for controlling advancing timbering in underground mines comprising: a plurality of control units, one assigned to each timbering units, which can be selected individually and each of which contain an electronic evaluation circuit; and a control room (or central control) which is equipped with a system which transmits control data delivered by a computer serially to the control units, is also equipped with a device indicating the state of the timbering, and with an input device for selecting the computer program, is described in DE-OS No. 27 36 365.* In the disclosed system, the control units are built up from electronic components and connected to the computer in the control room via a cable with a multiplicity of conductors, to each of which a task is assigned such as data transmission, power supply, timing, etc. This design of the control units is expensive, and due to the parallel connection to the cable, which is common to all control units, in the case of trouble it is difficult to determine at which control unit or in which cable section the trouble has occurred. FNT *=U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,271
It is an object of the present invention to produce a system for the control for longwall timbering in such a manner that the control data can be transmitted at the lowest possible cost without interference, and operating disturbances can be localized without elaborate measures.